The Anthony - Avery collection consists mainly of the correspondence between Susan Brownell Anthony and Rachel Foster Avery. The correspondence dates between the years 1882 to 1908, with the greatest number of letters having been written in 1887, 1897 and 1898. Most of the letters were written by Susan B. Anthony to Rachel F. Avery (161): there are also 36 retained carbons of Mrs. Avery's letters to Miss Anthony. Other women active in the suffrage movement who are represented in the collection by correspondence to either Miss Anthony or Mrs. Avery are: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, May Eliza Wright Sewall, Harriet Taylor Upton, Isabel Howland, Lillie Devereux Blake, Anna Howard Shaw, Lucretia Longshore Blankenburg, Elizabeth Blackwell, and Mary Garrett Hay. A chronological list of all the correspondence is included in this register.

The bulk of the collection is Gilman's correspondence to her friend Martha Luther Lane during the period of 1882 to 1889. The letters address her work, marriage, motherhood and depression. This and other correspondence forms the first series. The second series contains some of Gilman's advertising trade cards.

The bulk of this collection consists of letters from John McGraw to his wife Mary from September, 1863 - March, 1865 while he was serving in Company E of the 140th NY Volunteer Infantry. The letters discuss McGraw's unit's movements and where they made camp, his feelings about the war, things he witnessed in battle and at the hospitals he was a patient in, news of fellow soldiers from Rochester, the death of two of his young sons at home, his own illnesses and injuries, along with more mundane topics like sending money home, the weather, and food. Most letters contain a plea for more letters from Mary and more news of home. The collection also contains research the McGraw family compiled about John McGraw, including a McGraw family tree, photocopies of his military service records, and transcriptions of the letters.

The collection includes the personal papers and correspondence of the Bradford King family of Rochester. Among the papers are the diaries of Bradford King, the son of Gideon King who settled near Rochester in 1797. Bradford left this area after his father's death in 1798, but returned many years later. The diaries cover the period from June, 1811 to April, 1874. During some years the entries are scattered or very brief; in others the notes are voluminous. Included in the correspondence are four volumes of letters from Bradford King to his brother Moses King. Also in the collection are the diaries and personal papers of Moses Bradford King, son of Bradford King, who was a prominent Rochester druggist. Moses Bradford King wrote and published a pamphlet which advocated changes in the calendar for the twentieth century. Much of the correspondence consists of letters written between the two daughters of Moses B. King, Ella G. King and Ada M. King. For a time Ella and Ada King operated the King Seminary for Young Ladies and Children in Rochester. When the school closed, Ella King went west and taught in an Indian school in South Dakota. Ada remained in Rochester where she tutored high school and college students. In 1944, at the age of 80, she enrolled for courses at the University of Rochester extension school, becoming the University's oldest co-ed. She died at the age of 100 in 1964.

The collection is made up of the original audiotapes, upgrades of these to compact disc, the transcriptions of many of the interviews and the legal agreements entered into by the interview subjects. At this point in time [2005] a little more than 50% of the interviews have been transcribed.